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Rhûn
Rhûn, also known as The East and Eastlands in the Westron tongue, is a large region in the far eastern part of Middle-earth. It was the home and kingdom of the Easterlings in the Second and Third Ages. It had many different groups who ultimately fought together and were in Sauron's service. To most of the people of western Middle-earth, the land called Rhûn is shrouded in a haze of myth and rumor. It is at once the domain of mysterious cultures and mythic cities, a boundless expanse of wild plains and uncultivated lands rolling to the ends of the world, and a perfect horizon that might, at any moment be marred by an ominous smear of dust: the tell-tale sign of an approaching horde of riders. The majority of Western maps end in a great swath of tan, sometimes filled with the fanciful creatures of the artist's mind, but more often bearing only a single word: Rhûn. To a choice few, however, Rhûn is a diverse land of tremendous opportunity, where an individual with a handful of silver coins can build an empire. These few have glimpsed the snow-capped peaks of the Pinnon Rhûn from the deck of a ship sailing the Inland Sea. They have looked down on the green valleys of Folyavuld, which the west knows as Dorwinion. They have seen the forested shore of the sea, the tall spires and glittering domes of Mistrand, and the myriad Easterling campfires dotting the great plains like stars in the night sky. To these few, Rhûn beckons; calling out to the heart of the explorer. History Because so many of the cultures that have occupied the lands around the Inland Sea have practiced nomadism, the history of the Inland Sea is largely one of migration and continual change. The area of Rhûn is too vast, the time-span too deep, and the cultural geography too complex for an exhaustive history of the Inland Sea and its bordering lands. What is known of it is passed on by a long cultivated oral tradition, and much has never been recorded. Years of the Lamps and the Trees As those who are familiar with the history of the west will know, the Years of the Lamps was a time when the makers of Ea, the Valar, still walked Endor and strove in a direct manner to mold the world to their own tastes. Like all the other regions of Middle-earth, the northern center of the continent was shaped, torn-down, and reshaped by powerful hands. During the Years of the Trees, in its primordial form the Inland Sea was a perfect reflective pool, a tribute to the glory of Varda, and the starlight that was her legacy to the world. Hallowed forests grew around its shoreline, framing the unmarred reflection of the star filled sky in deep greens and browns. The creatures of Middle-earth, both the wandering Kelvar (animals) and the Maiar (lesser servants of the Valar) could not pass by the wondrous sea without being snared by its beauty. First Age The first Elves awoke far east of the Sea of Rhûn, and many of them were led to the Westlands by Oromë. Other houses of the Eldar tarried beside the various wonders of Middle-earth as they encountered them for the first time. So it was that a group of the Eldar related closely to the house of Olwe first looked out on the calm waters of the Inland Sea and were transfixed. These Elves were led by Folwe, brother of the Telerin King, and their pause along the shores of the Inland Sea caused them to fall behind the rest of the Eldar host. Ultimately the Teleri led by Folwe forsook this Great Journey and chose to remain in the east; they would come to be called the Avari. They made for themselves a realm in the forests north and east of the sea and thus joined the ranks of the Umanyar; the Eldar who never beheld the light of Valinor. The first Men also awoke in the far east, where they first met Dwarves and Avari. The ancestors of the Edain and Drúedain traveled west out of Rhûn. At the shores of the Sea of Rhûn, some of the Mannish tribes traveling west separated and their languages soon diverged. Other men remained in Rhûn, and many of them came under the dominion of Morgoth and, later, Sauron. These men were called Easterlings, and they led many attacks against Gondor and its allies during the Third Age. Third Age The most western parts of Rhûn were conquered by Gondor twice, under the Kings Rómendacil I and Rómendacil II, but the Númenóreans never had full control over it. Western Rhûn was finally subdued in the Fourth Age under King Elessar and his son Eldarion. Category:Kingdoms Category:Human Kingdoms Category:Regions